If you enjoy well-crafted psychological mysteries, then this novel about broken friendship, youthful angst and murder will be much to your liking.

As girls, Nora and Charlotte were the best of friends. But then Rose, their teenage babysitter, vanished under mysterious circumstances. The two friends decided to “investigate” the babysitter’s disappearance using paranormal theories and techniques they gleaned from a series of Time-Life Books.

The search is obviously not successful, and the only result is that both girls are distraught and upset with one another. Now, years later, the babysitter’s bones have been found, and the discovery brings the former friends back together. Charlotte insists they again look into the situation, which now appears to be a murder case.

Nora, the last person to see Rose alive, is forced to reconsider her memory of the events surrounding the disappearance and her own troubled adolescence following those fateful days. It is a trip down Memory Lane that will shine light on dark secrets perhaps better left hidden.

Developed using alternating narratives from the past and present, In Search of the Rose Notes has depth, complexity, and a suspenseful plot. There’s much more going on here than just discovering “whodunit.”